Saturday, March 28, 2015

"My morning is all about stilling the outside world so my mind can soar."

By Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert)

Years ago, I engineered my routine to concentrate my creative energy into a few hours in the morning.

That makes sense for me because I am the creator of "Dilbert." My value is based on my best ideas in any given day, not the number of hours I work.

Creativity is not something you can summon on command. The best you can do is set an attractive trap and wait. My mornings are the trap.

I wait for the ideas to arrive at their leisure, like a hunter in a duck blind. And in order for the trap to work, I exercise tight control over my physical environment.

The first 20 minutes of my day are exactly the same, step for step, every day, including weekends and holidays. I even eat and drink the same things — coffee and a protein bar — as soon as I wake up.

In other words, I set my physical body on autopilot for the morning. That frees my brain for creativity.

I am lucky to be a morning person. My alarm is set for 5 a.m., but if I wake up any time after 3:30 a.m., I call that close enough and pop out of bed with a hum and a bounce.

I’ll sleep when I’m dead, which might be soon; science tells us that averaging four hours of sleep per night is unhealthy. I have been under-sleeping for decades, and I just keep getting healthier. But don’t take medical advice from cartoonists.

Within 10 minutes of waking, I am at my desk in my home office. I enjoy my protein bar with my coffee because the tastes are amazing together.